Btw there seems to be a very deliberately asinine attempt to make a couple of absurd claims about RAP having magically gotten listed on the good Lord's List of Bestest Neighborhoods in the World, in order to squelch the credibility of dissenting voices o. This issue.
Take for example, Wayne Woods unfortunate recent debate which he began with an attempted excoriation of myself on the basis of my lack of support for some of his more fanciful claims about the history of the neighborhood.
In fact the claim is actually a simple inclusion on an annual great neighborhoods/ great places list compiled by the American Planning Association.
This list, which already includes forty other neighborhoods and which grows by ten more each year (it was established In 2008) is chosen based on the excellent attributes which reflect the goals and ideals of the American Planning Association. These are goals and ideals which are shared in large part by the founders and board of metrojacksonville, which has also been honored by both the local and state organs of the same association.
Perhaps the passage of a couple of years has allowed the bragging rights to grow into questionably sweeping assumptions on the part of a privileged and powerful few in the community to justify any hare brained scheme on the part of the resident group, no matter how out of sync with the APA recognition they might be.
For example, the neighborhood was included on the list for three reasons which have literally nothing to do with residential decisions or purview.
1. The size and diversity of the architectural stock. No living person is responsible for the diversity of the architectural stock. Preservation groups can take some of the credit for the sheer number of buildings left standing, but they cannot take credit for how many of them were built to begin with.
2. The diversity of transportation options--which tragically emphasized the now cancelled riverside trolley buses.
3. The presence of five very distinct commercial districts in the neighborhood.
For anyone who would like to verify this, please refer to the actual website of the American Planning Association:
http://www.planning.org/greatplaces/neighborhoods/2010/From the perspective of the actual blue ribbon panel, the present embarrassing, pro parking lot, pro demolition, anti business contretemps would seem to be, at the very least, counterproductive.
What is it about this neighborhood where any recognition is hijacked and credited to groups besides the actual causes?
This is very similar to the spurious claim that RAP forced Publix to develop a new "historic store design and layout" that the company has gone on to use nationally. This claim turned out to be pure poppycock, on the same level as when Romy tried to tell everyone at the reunion that she had invented Post its.
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